Jordi Fernández does not enjoy talking about himself. After his Brooklyn Nets defeated the Milwaukee Bucks on October 27, marking his first win as an NBA head coach, he acknowledged the joy of the moment, but added: “At the end of the day, I didn’t win anything. The guys won the game. That’s what basketball is, played by players.”
Fernández gushes about others — assistant coaches, players, opponents — whether prompted or unprompted, but never about himself, an amusing backdrop for Sunday’s game against the Sacramento Kings. The contest marked the Spaniard’s first return to the Golden 1 Center, where he spent two seasons as the Sacramento Kings Associate Head Coach (the team’s two most successful seasons in nearly two decades.